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Volunteer visitors training on introduction to Judicial review and how it works

AVID was delighted to partner with The Public Law Project (PLP) to offer a free training for visitors groups from all over UK.

On 24th October, we welcomed volunteer visitors from across the UK to the session – from as far afield as Nottingham and Oxford. 23 people from 6 different visitors groups participated in this valuable training on introduction to judicial review, and how the process work. The training room was filled with lots of diverse experience in terms of visiting.

The session was led by Rakesh Singh (Solicitor at The Public Law Project)and Joe Middleton (Doughty Street Chambers). The Public Law Project (PLP) is a national legal charity which aims to improve access to public law remedies for those whose access to justice is restricted by poverty or some other form of disadvantage. In most cases in immigration detention, accessing justice is an ongoing issue. PLP also undertakes research, policy initiatives, casework and training across the range of public law remedies. They also run a project called Exceptional Funding Project , in order to raise awareness on who is eligible for exceptional funding, about the system and PLP’s work on it, and also to help apply for funding yourself. Please find out more information about their work – here.

The training event was generously hosted by Doughty Street Chamber. Doughty Street Chambers is home to leading specialist barristers who advise and appear as advocates for clients in courts and tribunals around the world. Joe Middleton is one of their barristers. Joe’s main areas of work in Chambers are immigration and nationality law, extradition, Interpol red notices, death penalty litigation and other complex constitutional and human rights challenges

The training covered the core idea of judicial review (JR), the grounds of JR, process of lodging a JR and most importantly the type of judicial reviews that visitors/ visitor groups will come across. This training session was opened by instructing the volunteers, it is not a legal training. But a step forward to gain more knowledge into the process of JR, and when to sign post those who are in detention to get appropriate legal advice. All of the delegates were reminded that they will not be allowed to give any legal advice, unless they are regulated by OISC (Office of Immigration Service Commissioner).

Feedbacks from the attendees were positive, with at least 95% of attendees saying they would recommend similar course to others, who are supporting people in detention.

“Thank you to all those involved in offering this very comprehensive and useful training. The material is complex and potentially dense. However, the way in which it was collated and presented by Joe Middleton and Rakesh Singh allowed it to be comprehensible and digestible!!”

Training Participant, 2017

Let us know if your group would like to follow up and receive similar training and how to better support people in detention.